I wish I could put my cat on the teadmill! He eats too much but our other cat wouldn't eat enough if we cut back on food.

This is Caira (AKA "little mosquito") because she has this funny drawn out meow she does sometimes that kind of sounds like a really loud mosquito.



This is Rashnu (AKA "tubbies") because he's a little bit chubby. He HAS to have plenty of food in the bowl at all times or he cries and cries. If you can see the bottom of the bowl, there is not enough food. We can't put him on a diet though because Caira will only eat a little bit at a time.

Kristi S, your cats are gorgeous!

You know, dogs like veggies, too! My vet suggested cooked potatoes or raw carrots to help my dog lose weight. I didn't do the potato (me, cook for a dog?) so I cut down on the food and gave a whole raw carrot at each meal. My 103 pound dog is now 70 (yellow lab) and he actually prefers the carrots to his dog food! He also LOVES lettuce (the stem part of Romaine is the best!).
My other dog (golden retriever) was never over weight, but she loved the carrots as well. Unfortunately, she died last summer and we ended up adopting a black lab. He was raised for almost a year in a pet store and had never had a table scrap (how wonderful!!!--he actually spits out things like pieces of chicken or beef, so I don't give him any now). He has learned to love carrots and lettuce though! I'm glad because he has gained a bit of weight since we got him (he was very skinny) and I know the carrots will help keep him in the normal range.

I can relate with the fat cat (mine is about 15 lbs) but as a very wise vet I used to work for once said "You can't make a house cat exercise."

Dogs on the other hand... mine are about ideal weight. One is a couch potato and starting to get heavy, time to up her exercise get rid of the winter flab on her.

Just as a pointer though.... Anyone who feed treats please keep in mind that 3 milkbone treats (depending on the size of the dog) contains the recomended daily amount of calories for your pooch. A better choice would be carrots, canned green beans, or apples. My dog loves fruit and veggies, just keep in mind that some are not good for them and try to find something they like.

Milk Bones are that high in calorie?? One thing I definitely need is a calorie guide for my dogs. I don't think the vet did a very good job explaining to my husband about food - that's all fine if we give her a scoop of dry food twice a day and nothing else - but we usually mix it with wet food, plus we reward them for good things, and give them little bits to keep their mind off of things, like toenail clippers.

Does anybody know where I can find calorie requirements and how to decrease the calories without making the dogs hungry? I'm also thinking at their light weight, it will be more precise to weigh their food than measure it.

Here's a calc http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm

And here's a good guide http://www.phouka.com/dogs/dog_amount.html which tells how many calories are in dog food.

Looks like my Lola needs about 133 cal per day, but probably less because she's a senior dog.

Just dropping in to say... While I was pounding away on my in the gym, there was a program on TV with a leetle doggie pounding away on his too! It's not such a daft idea! I think it was a golden lab though, so perhaps Truffle might feel a bit intimidated!

If anyone watches the Dog Whisperer - he puts dogs on treadmills sometimes...I prefer to walk my guy myself - I need the workout as much as he does...he went from 125 pounds to 75 pounds with regular walks and diet dog food.

We have an apple tree and a pear tree in our yard. My yellow lab pulls pears out of the pear tree and plays "roll it down the hill and chase it - until you get tired..then eat it." My australian Shepard picks up the apples and runs all over the place with it until he finally eats it. It's the funniest thing to watch!!!! I don't know what they're going to do when there's no more fruit on the trees this year. It's the first year they've done this!

My lab is a lean/mean/athletic dog. My Aussie is even more athletic but has gained a lot of weight. I just got his thyroid checked and it's right on the edge of needing meds. So I'm switching him to a raw food diet and vitamins and oils for the year to see if we can help him get it back to where it should be. The vet offered no advice for it. He just wanted to put him on a cal restricted diet - but he was already on one and religiously...and he gained more weight! I feel better trying it this way first. Boy - he LOVES his new food!!!!!

I can relate to the fat pet as my suppose to be teacup poodle who was 3 1/2 lbs when I got her at age 2 is now 3 years later 5 lbs and has the body of a stuffed sausage. I just put her on low calorie dog food and have to watch that she doesn't sneak food from the other dog's dishes. It doesn't help that dh gives treats all day long.

I must have an odd Chihuahua - he'll bark at people who come into the house, but if we take him for walks he just gets so excited and happy when he sees other people - he wants to go meet them. He's really friendly. He does have a hard time with male family members sometimes though - but my dad won him over by giving him treats, lol.

I didn't kno that dogs might like apples! After reading that here I was surprised. Altho a couple weeks ago I set my apple down for a minute while I did something and my 8 month old boxer swiped it from me and wouldn't give it back .. not that I would of ate it ..but I didnt' want her leavin it somewhere and it getting rotten. But she ate the dang thing and DH and I were just crackin up watchin her eat this apple! was thinkin man she will eat anything!! shows what we kno huh?!

readin the treadmill comments made me giggle and I have to share this story
the other day my son's lil pug kept coming over and puttin her paws on the front of the treadmill lookin up at me .. we just got the treadmill a cpl days before and its a new interest to the dogs... I just kept tellin her .. you don't want to do that ! and she would wander off ...then come back and look at me again ... well a little while later the kids left and let the boxer in ..and they play constantly ..chasin each other around .. my house is a zoo .. but the next thing i know izzy *the pug* is headed straight for me at full speed and I am thinkin *oh this isn't gonna be good* .. i put my feet on the side rails as she jumps for me ... lands on the treadmill ... tries to back track ..and flies off the end .. only bad thing is ..there is a wall about 8 inches behind me .. so she flew off into that ..but didn't get hurt .. just looked at me like .. *ok ..that sucked!* ... she hasn't got near it since.. but when it happened I got a case of the giggles and was thinkin about gettin off of it before i flew off too!!